There was a great song from a band called Borghesia called, "No Hope No Fear," which I've always enjoyed listening to.
Sure enough, it's the one song that isn't currently in my cache of music, but fuck it, I'll find it sooner or later for download. I fear the CD is stuck deep in a box somewhere in someone's closet. The compilation was called Electronic Body Music, and right now, I'm listening to a lot of dark electronica. When I went to search for it this morning on the way to work (in the ipod library), I realized I would have to wait.
It's been fun and zippy over the past couple of weeks. I love fall, so as the leaves change and the weather gets cooler, I constantly look forward to football matches on Saturday and Sunday afternoon, and try to fit in my domestic duties around a few games.
This past weekend was quite the lively one: Man U were held by Everton, Liverpool beat Chelsea, and thank goodness Arsenal managed to win 2-0 against West Ham Sunday evening.
I actually only saw the Arsenal match; I spent a good portion of the weekend getting back into the gym thing.
For the better part of the past six months, I've really only done sport on the weekends, and while I've been fairly serious about it, it's never enough, particularly on the rations I allow myself for cigarettes and alcohol.
Thankfully, I finally told myself enough is enough, and have gone back to every other day visits into the gym. Not surprisingly, my energy is coming back, my fitness is improving, and yeah, ok, maybe schnitzel is not the BEST thing to be eating post workout, but I'm not going to really knock it either. Besides, before this turns into a Henry Rollins kind of thing (man, that guy likes to workout a lot!), I'm still clipping along having pils and Jagers anytime I fancy it.
That said, I like the routine of bouncing around the fitness studio multiple times a week, even with the goofy short guys that are constantly flexing and checking themselves out in the mirrors. Let it be said, whether Dallas or Frankfurt, the trendy gyms are still the trendy gyms.
On other fronts, I believe my capabilities in German seem to be hitting a plateau. Thus, I'm renewing my focus on trying to communicate a bit more intelligently. No easy task, but it certainly helps when I study more regularly.
The concern about my language skills came from the realization that perhaps my team doesn't always understand what I'm trying to say in the workplace. Embarassingly enough, I always have mistaken their puzzled looks for the sheer bewilderment that their boss listens to copious amounts of punk rock on the way to work each morning at a deafening level on the ipod and shows up for the start of each work day pretty wound up.
At any rate, the grammar books are reopened, and I often eat dinner with Genativ, Dativ, and Akkusativ. Before you say, "gee, that sounds really boring," let me express my own slight concern that my new Bavarian boss is soon to hold our first staff meeting and I do NOT want to be the only guy that has to ask for everything to be repeated. I've gone the past six months without sitting through a 3 hour management meeting conducted solely in German, and need to react now and get back in the groove.
Alas, there's really nothing other to report this week save for the escapade I had on the regional bahn this morning enroute to work. I found a spot on the train, shrugged my gym bag and backpack off my shoulders, then said, "what the fuck!!???!??" as I realized that, once again, a bird has taken advantage of my naivity and pooped on my rucksack. Thank goodness it wasn't my head, but geez, it was a bit more than I wanted to deal with at 8am on a rainy morning.
Not to worry, I got it cleaned (more or less) with a couple of wet wipes (live and learn, eh?) and strolled into work with, er, no hope, and no fear.
keep the faith
bryan
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Nada Que Perder
A friend of mine turned 40 last weekend, and being that we share some similar music tastes, I elected to put together a little birthday mix for her of tracks from about 20 years ago. (gasp)
So, during the daily commutes in the metro and the train, I shuffled through my iPod trying to find 16 or so songs that I thought fitting. Identifying them wasn't a challenge, nor was creating the correct order of the playlist. However, I completely forgot that most of my stuff isn't on my PC, but instead solely on my iPod. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but as I tend to procrastinate, I found myself terribly hungover last Saturday(previous night was a going away party for another friend moving to Munich) and trying to figure out just how I was going to get this simple CD burned.
Since I recently got a new laptop with much more capacity, I realized that the best thing would be to simply dump my iPod back onto my PC, then import everything back into iTunes. I spent the 30 minutes waiting for the iPod to PC transfer to complete doing a bit of vaccuming and other random domestic stuff, then the real fun started.
Embarassing enough, I work in the tech industry and forgot that you don't just DUMP a 500mb folder anywhere. As I had 49 folders to muck about with, I suddenly realized that this project was going to take a while. And, this was only to be able to START creating the playlist.
Two Skpe calls, half a bottle of baileys (don't ask) and 30 folders later, I had 13 of the 16 songs. The problem was that each folder contained hundreds of songs, all coded in away that don't easily enable one to just select the immediately required files. Once or twice I pictured someone (namely me) getting really frustrated trying to go through 6000 CDs without any liner notes attempting to find "that really cool song i used to listen to about 10 years ago that i forgot the name of." It wasn't pretty, and thank goodness I came to my senses and decided that I'd just have to bring the gift belatedly. As it was, I stopped dumping files around 10pm, quickly showered, then ran next door to join up with those of us from the Bornheim pub area that were to taxi to the restaurant where the party was held.
The party was fun, but I called it an early night and left around 3.
I resumed my project again when I woke up, and got the result within about an hour: all tunes back in iTunes, particularly the 16, and after a quick burn, I had my gift ready. Even better was the fact that I ran into the birthday girl (whose birthday was actually on Sunday; Germans beging the birthday celebrations at 12.01am on the day of their birthday, which is why the party was on Saturday) in the highstreet, and ticked the box for having given the gift on the right date.
All in all, a fairly decent weekend, one that included the added joy of finally, after many many months of waiting, getting some boots that I'd ordered from England (via the US). Amusingly enough, I initially thought that the boots didn't fit, but then later realized that I was just really hungover when I tried them on. Had I put the shoestrings through the proper eyes, things would have been OK right from the start. So, I'm now bopping around town in a new pair of Gripfast. Cool. Definitely worth the wait.
The week before the birthday party, I was in Edinburgh on business, which turned out to be a really nice time, also. My hotel was in city center right at the base of the castle. It was a bit hard to hide my enthusiasm in front of my supplier, but she accepted the fact that I was a big fan of the city. Alas, I didn't run into Ian Rankin in any of the bars I was in, but I was thrilled to be there regardless.
Workwise, it's been nonstop bop. Q4 forecasts, 2009 budget and plan, a random problem or two created by our facility in Prague, and a few exasperated moments where I called someone a complete prat on a conference call (perfectly justified, i thought) are just some of the highlights of the busy days. My new boss started working this past week, too. Should be very interesting in the coming weeks.
On the social front, things are wacky as usual, and currently they're a bit emotional, but I know that Alles wird gut.
I'll leave you with that. I've got to go and fight for a friend.
keep the faith
bryan
tracklist -
Mana - Nada que perder
Blaggers ITA - Oxygen
Alkaline Trio - Over and Out
So, during the daily commutes in the metro and the train, I shuffled through my iPod trying to find 16 or so songs that I thought fitting. Identifying them wasn't a challenge, nor was creating the correct order of the playlist. However, I completely forgot that most of my stuff isn't on my PC, but instead solely on my iPod. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but as I tend to procrastinate, I found myself terribly hungover last Saturday(previous night was a going away party for another friend moving to Munich) and trying to figure out just how I was going to get this simple CD burned.
Since I recently got a new laptop with much more capacity, I realized that the best thing would be to simply dump my iPod back onto my PC, then import everything back into iTunes. I spent the 30 minutes waiting for the iPod to PC transfer to complete doing a bit of vaccuming and other random domestic stuff, then the real fun started.
Embarassing enough, I work in the tech industry and forgot that you don't just DUMP a 500mb folder anywhere. As I had 49 folders to muck about with, I suddenly realized that this project was going to take a while. And, this was only to be able to START creating the playlist.
Two Skpe calls, half a bottle of baileys (don't ask) and 30 folders later, I had 13 of the 16 songs. The problem was that each folder contained hundreds of songs, all coded in away that don't easily enable one to just select the immediately required files. Once or twice I pictured someone (namely me) getting really frustrated trying to go through 6000 CDs without any liner notes attempting to find "that really cool song i used to listen to about 10 years ago that i forgot the name of." It wasn't pretty, and thank goodness I came to my senses and decided that I'd just have to bring the gift belatedly. As it was, I stopped dumping files around 10pm, quickly showered, then ran next door to join up with those of us from the Bornheim pub area that were to taxi to the restaurant where the party was held.
The party was fun, but I called it an early night and left around 3.
I resumed my project again when I woke up, and got the result within about an hour: all tunes back in iTunes, particularly the 16, and after a quick burn, I had my gift ready. Even better was the fact that I ran into the birthday girl (whose birthday was actually on Sunday; Germans beging the birthday celebrations at 12.01am on the day of their birthday, which is why the party was on Saturday) in the highstreet, and ticked the box for having given the gift on the right date.
All in all, a fairly decent weekend, one that included the added joy of finally, after many many months of waiting, getting some boots that I'd ordered from England (via the US). Amusingly enough, I initially thought that the boots didn't fit, but then later realized that I was just really hungover when I tried them on. Had I put the shoestrings through the proper eyes, things would have been OK right from the start. So, I'm now bopping around town in a new pair of Gripfast. Cool. Definitely worth the wait.
The week before the birthday party, I was in Edinburgh on business, which turned out to be a really nice time, also. My hotel was in city center right at the base of the castle. It was a bit hard to hide my enthusiasm in front of my supplier, but she accepted the fact that I was a big fan of the city. Alas, I didn't run into Ian Rankin in any of the bars I was in, but I was thrilled to be there regardless.
Workwise, it's been nonstop bop. Q4 forecasts, 2009 budget and plan, a random problem or two created by our facility in Prague, and a few exasperated moments where I called someone a complete prat on a conference call (perfectly justified, i thought) are just some of the highlights of the busy days. My new boss started working this past week, too. Should be very interesting in the coming weeks.
On the social front, things are wacky as usual, and currently they're a bit emotional, but I know that Alles wird gut.
I'll leave you with that. I've got to go and fight for a friend.
keep the faith
bryan
tracklist -
Mana - Nada que perder
Blaggers ITA - Oxygen
Alkaline Trio - Over and Out
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